Snaring a Baggy
NRL/NRLW Finals Footy, NZ Breakers week one reaction, White Ferns & NZ-A cricket, Callum McCowatt's hat-trick, and more
Scotty’s Word
Isaiah Papali'i (Te Atatu) is my best Kiwi-NRL player in NRL finals followed by Ronaldo Mulitalo (Ellerslie).
Panthers defeated Bulldogs on Sunday night and Papali'i served up another highly efficient performance with a try in both finals games so far this season. Papali'i had the most run metres for Panthers forwards for the second game in a row despite playing less than 40mins coming off the bench and along with his two tries he has five tackle breaks, three offloads, and 150+ runs metres in his two finals wins.
Papali'i has also played every NZ Kiwis Test since they returned to action mid-way through 2022. 13 Tests for Aotearoa doesn't put you up the top of the historic charts but Papali'i is one of the few players who has showed up for each campaign for NZ Kiwis in the last three seasons and he is on track to feature again this season.
Mulitalo missed the Pacific Championships last year but he should be back in the mix this season along with Jamayne Isaako (Aranui) and Will Warbrick (Ngongotaha). The Ellerslie junior from Otara has scored three tries in his two finals games for Sharks and had 160+ run metres in the two wins.
25 games this season is the most Mulitalo has played in his seven years of NRL footy with Sharks. He probably won't catch his 21 tries in 2023, he’s currently on 17 tries this season, but his 156m/game is a career high for Mulitalo and he leads us into some funky Aotearoa Sharks wrinkles.
Both players in the Sharks team for their Jersey Flegg Cup (U21) finals win vs Panthers were from outside Auckland.
Pharrell Gray has been on the wing all season as a Victoria Hunters junior from Wellington and Felix Fa'atili has dabbled in NSW Cup but has spent most of this season at prop for the U21s as a Hornby junior from Christchurch.
Add in Jaydika Tafua who is a Papanui junior from Christchurch and Sharks had two forwards from Christchurch playing finals footy this weekend. Sharks also have Brooke Anderson who was born and raised in Sydney but she's been playing for Kiwi Ferns and Tyla King who is a New Lynn junior from Auckland.
King has started six of her eight games on the bench this season with one game at fullback and another game starting in the halves. She could be an option for Kiwi Ferns in the halves but she offers the most value to Aotearoa as a bench utility who can cover a few different roles.
Knights had an NRLW finals win vs Titans and only one of their four NRLWahine is from Auckland. Fane Finau is an Otara junior who has had a fantastic start to her NRLW career with three wins as a starting edge forward and 15 tackle breaks in her three games. Shanice Parker is form Perth but she has been riding with Kiwi Ferns and Waitara's Tiana Davison continues to simmer as a fantastic middle forward.
Tenika Willison is from Taharoa and I'm expecting her to earn selection in the highly competitive outside back department for Kiwi Ferns this year. Tenika is from the illustrious Taharoa production line as a cousin of Broncos (and maybe NZ Kiwiws) forward Xavier Willison, while Te Maire Martin and Taine Tuaupiki come from the town as well.
NSW Cup Warriors are in the grand final after defeating Eels 42-14 and they will play Dragons next Sunday night.
I have listed lots of Aotearoa rugby league stats and things for paid subscribers including more background for the stuff described above and a bunch of NZ Warriors reserve grade notes. One thing I'm pondering now though is the halves depth cooking at Mt Smart as Tanah Boyd, Luke Hanson and Jett Cleary all played in the NSW Cup finals win vs Eels.
Boyd and Hanson started, then Cleary got a few minutes at the end with Boyd coming off. All three have played 10+ games of NSW Cup this year.
Warriors have Luke Metcalf, Chanel Harris-Tavita and Martin in the halves mix. Jye Linnane will move from Newcastle to Mt Smart next season where he could enter the equation at the U21 level and if that's the case, he would probably playing alongside Jack Thompson who has already made the move from Newcastle to Mt Smart.
Thompson played U17s last year and after missing the U19 season this year he slotted into the U21 team. Maui Winitana-Patelesio started this year in U19s and stepped up for a decent stint at the U21 level, usually playing in the halves with Thompson.
We don't know which halves will depart Warriors this summer but there are no issues with the halves depth at Mt Smart. This will be boosted by progression through the pipeline as the U17s won their second championship in a row and the 2024 success led to a quick rise for Thompson, so halves from below the U19s will emerge as well.
2025 ODI Women's World Cup: New Zealand Squad Breakdown
Breaking Down New Zealand's T20I Squad To Play Australia
2025 New Zealand A Tour Of South Africa Debrief
Does White Ferns form matter?
White Ferns went 7-18 in T20Is from the start of 2023 to the start of the T20 World Cup last year, including a 1-12 run in 2024 before the T20WC. Then they won that tournament and only lost won game against Australia.
In ODIs, White Ferns are 4-9 since the start of 2024. Take out two wins vs Sri Lanka earlier this year and they are 2-9, which could be viewed as a positive given how Aotearoa brushed off their stinky T20I record to win the T20WC last year.
Suzie Bates will be an intriguing player for White Ferns, probably batting at the top of the order. Here's three stages of Bates' ODI batting career...
2006-2014: 37.2avg/78sr
2015-2019: 49.6avg/84sr
2020 onwards: 33.4avg/77sr
The last stage broken down by year...
2020: 39avg/70sr
2021: 11.4avg/54sr
2022: 44.1avg/87sr
2023: 40.2avg/75sr
2024: 22.6avg/71sr
2025: 29avg/70sr
I have been meditating about NZ-A players who have the best chance to find regular roles for Blackcaps in the next six months. Zak Foulkes and Bevon Jacobs are in the T20 squad to play Australia, along with Tim Robinson who wasn't involved in any NZ-A cricket this year. That means that Foulkes and Jacobs start the kiwi (spring) summer ahead of the others.
Foulkes is the bloke to track closely over the next few months, mainly because he is the most likely to make the T20 World Cup squad of the emerging players. Snaring a baggy on Test debut was also useful and his ability to move the ball both ways, with similar batting ability to Nathan Smith, could see Foulkes get more opportunities in the longer formats than Jacob Duffy or Matthew Fisher for example.
Mitch Hay is the other emerging player closest to a steady Blackcaps role. Tim Seifert is the main T20 wicket-keeper with Finn Allen and Devon Conway capable of being back ups in a squad, with all three of them batting up the top of the order. Hay needs to bat in the middle which could clutter the T20 balance but the combination of his 48.1avg in FC batting and Tom Blundell's iffy form mean that Hay could make his Test debut this summer.
Along with a few more thoughts about this, I've got spotlights of Tim Seifert and Daryl Mitchell for paid subscribers and the Patreon whanau. Big ups everyone who is funding our mahi.
Musical jam…
Nick’s Notebook
Five NZ Breakers Ideas Following A Couple Of Round One Losses…
1) Don’t Overreact
If ever there was a good example of how starts can be misleading, look at last season’s Breakers team which began 7-3 and then went 3-16 the rest of the way. This year’s Breakers have restored their kiwi mana but it was a rough opening round as they were beaten 104-95 at home to Brisbane on Friday and then thrashed 114-82 away to Melbourne on Sunday. Quick turnaround. Two difficult match-ups. A few injury absences in there. Lots of things we can point to. But the main factor is that the Breakers aren’t just trying to change a few players, they’re trying to change the entire culture of the organisation and that was never going to be an instant fix. Gotta give things time to settle.
2) Defence Is A Priority
When we talk about kiwi sporting values, especially in basketball, it usually begins with defence. But after giving up 218 points in the space of three days we may have to doubt that assumption. Specifically, the Breakers got tortured by Tyrell Harrison (24p/15r) and Jesse Edwards (22p/6r) as paint-enforcer big men, leading to way too many easy buckets and second-chance possessions as both Brisbane and Melbourne shot over 50% from the field. That puts pressure on NZB’s own scoring which leads to bad decisions and turnovers and that in turn leads to a team like Melbourne United running the floor and boosting up the scores. Again, defence is something that should improve as this unit plays more games together (especially new imports Brockington and Baker). Also note that they didn’t have Sam Mennenga for the MU game and his strength in the post was obviously a loss. Bottom line is that’s just way too many points to be giving up, no matter how it’s happening.
3) Threeeeeees
The other glaring issue was that the Breakers somehow managed to shoot 5/29 (17%) from three-pointers against Brisbane and 10/33 (30%) against Melbourne Utd. And the second figure was only as ‘good’ as it was because Rob Baker hit a few in the fourth quarter when the game had already bolted (they shot 2/13 from triples in the first half). This is not going to be an area of strength for this team, they just don’t have the shooters. They’re capable of scoring in plenty of other ways so don’t stress too much... but they need to be better than whatever that was. These are the three-point figures from those two combined games...
Baker 4/12
Lopez 2/4
Jackson-Cartwright 2/7
Loe 2/8
Te Rangi 2/8
Brockington 2/9
Le’Afa 1/7
Mennenga 0/3
Davison 0/3
Darling 0/1
4) PJC for MVP
Having gotten very excited by the abilities of Izaiah Brockington during preseason, this weekend reminded me why Parker Jackson-Cartwright remains The Dude for the Breakers. He served up 16 points and 12 assists in the first game (I’m expecting to see his assists take a boost this year) and somehow had a +10 plus/minus his 30ish minutes of action despite exactly none of his teammates (zero, zilch, nada) having positive on-court differentials themselves. They lost by nine points which means they were outscored by 19 in the ten minutes that he sat for. Far and away the most influential force in that game for the Breakers.
Admittedly, PJC did cough up a few turnovers late in that game when his conditioning was clearly lacking after having been limited in preseason due to a rib injury that continues to hamper him. That injury kept him to just 14 minutes (5p/4a) against United where struggled along with everyone else. That’s going to have to be something they manage carefully because we saw in the season opener that this team which is still searching for its new identity will need to rely heavily on the instant-offence that PJC supplies with his pace and directness.
5) Step Forward Carlin Davison
Two games into this season, Carlin Davison is already over halfway to matching his minutes tally from NBL25 (47 mins vs 72 mins). They promoted him to a full contract in the offseason. He’s played for the Tall Blacks. He was brilliant for Taranaki in the NZ stuff. Got some NBA G-League International Draft recognition. There’s no question that he’s going to have a breakthrough Aussie season too... which we saw on glorious full display as he logged 12 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists against Brizzy.
Then we got the flipside as Melbourne United exposed the roughness around the edges of his game. This is another example of why the Breakers will be slow risers this campaign. Davison has got that role. He’s getting those minutes. But he’s also only just turned 22 years old and is still learning his game while played at a more intense and unforgiving standard than before. It’s not all going to click overnight and that’s fine. Nobody’s expecting the Breakers to be challenging for a championship this year so they can afford a slow start. Patience is key.
Maddison-Lee Wesche pulled out the goods to earn a bronze medal in the Women’s Shot Put at the World Athletics Championships, adding a little more glitter to what was already a hugely successful NZ team following golds for Geordie Beamish and Hamish Kerr. New Zealand had never even won two medals in the same WAC prior to this event and here we go with three of the things.
Wesche tied her personal best with a throw of 20.06m in her first attempt and led the way right up until the final round when Jessica Schilder (20.29m) and Chase Jackson (20.21m) both overtook her. Wesche unleashed a bomb with her last attempt which would have knocked those two back down but we’ll never know exactly how far it went because it was a foul and didn’t get measured. The same thing happened to her at the Olympics where she was leading into the final round and got pipped for silver. Hard to be too disappointed when she’s topping out at personal bests though.
NZ Medals at World Athletics Championships
Beatrice Faumuina – Women’s Discus – GOLD in 1997
Valerie Adams – Women’s Shot Put – SILVER in 2005
Valerie Adams – Women’s Shot Put – GOLD in 2007
Valerie Adams – Women’s Shot Put – GOLD in 2009
Valerie Adams – Women’s Shot Put – GOLD in 2011
Valerie Adams – Women’s Shot Put – GOLD in 2013
Tom Walsh – Men’s Shot Put – GOLD in 2017
Tom Walsh – Men’s Shot Put – BRONZE in 2019
Geordie Beamish – Men’s 3k Steeplechase – GOLD in 2025
Hamish Kerr – Men’s High Jump – GOLD in 2025
Maddi Wesche – Women’s Shot Put – BRONZE in 2025
Aotearoa at the 2025 World Athletics Champs
Geordie Beamish – Men’s 3k Steeplechase - GOLD
Hamish Kerr – Men’s High Jump - GOLD
Sam Tanner – Men’s 1500m – 10th in Heat (DNQ)
Ethan Olivier – Men’s Triple Jump – 16th in Qualifying (DNQ)
Tom Walsh – Men’s Shot Put - 4th
Nick Palmer – Men’s Shot Put – 15th in Qualifying (DNQ)
Connor Bell – Men’s Discus – 10th
Zoe Hobbs – Women’s 100m - 5th in Semi Final (DNQ)
Olivia McTaggert – Women’s Pole Vault - 8th
Imogin Ayris – Women’s Pole Vault - 10th
Eliza McCartney – Women’s Pole Vault – No Measurement in Final
Lauren Bruce – Women’s Hammer - 19th in Qualifying (DNQ)
Tori Moorby – Women’s Javelin – 7th
Maddi Wesche – Women’s Shot Put – BRONZE
Dunno if you happened to see Callum McCowatt’s hat-trick this morning for Silkeborg in the Danish Superliga but if you didn’t you can catch the goals on our socials and you’ll probably want to join our paid Substack brigade to have a peek at the deep dive on Flying Kiwis hat-trick scorers beyond the paywall…
All Whites vs Australia 2025 Soccer Ashes: The Aftermath
Previewing Aotearoa at the 2025 FIFA Men’s U20 World Cup
Guest Contribution: An Interview With NZ U16 Women’s Footballer Isla Robson
Big thanks to Warren Olson, Casual Football and Futsal Commentator, for putting this together and letting us run it, and also to Isla for her thoughtful responses
New Zealand qualified for October’s FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco some time ago but with U17 World Cups now happening every year, it was a case of ‘rinse and repeat’ last month as NZ U16s Women’s Coach Alana Gunn took our latest batch of promising youngsters to Samoa where the Oceania qualifiers for the 2026 edition were held.
The team began their task with three straightforward victories before being pressed by New Caledonia in the semi-final and scraping home 4-2. Taking that wake-up call into the final they came out firing against Samoa, quickly scoring three goals to wrap up the title while preserving New Zealand’s unbeaten record at the tournament and securing their spot at another U17 World Cup. One of the new bright prospects unearthed over the five games was Auckland United’s attacking player Isla Robson. I asked Isla a few questions to get her thoughts on the team, the tournament, her form, and becoming a New Zealand rep.
Firstly Isla congratulations on being called up for the U16s squad and on your performances at the tournament. When did you get the call and how exciting was it the first time you ran out wearing the New Zealand kit ?
Thanks Warren, it has been an amazing opportunity to get to represent my country. When they first announced the team it was around a month before the flight to Samoa but the whole ID process took around 6 months from our first trials in March. I was really nervous when I first came out wearing the New Zealand kit because I knew how important playing for your country is.
It’s a talented squad composed of girls that not only play locally, but some who play overseas. Apart from the Auckland United girls you wouldn’t have known much about the others, and yet you seemed to combine well from game one. What do you put that down to? Were you able to train together before you left for Samoa?
Before we left there was an extended squad camp where we met some of the overseas players and ones I hadn't met from other New Zealand clubs. This allowed us to get to know each other and find out each other's styles of play. We also had a camp the week before we left where we settled into the process and environment of New Zealand football.
On the topic of ‘squad gelling’ how did you all get on off the pitch? Two weeks in Samoa with 17 other girls must have been fun… surely there’s some ‘Tea’ you can share with us?
We gelled really well off the pitch — two weeks in Samoa made us all really close. We were always together, playing card games, or just talking and laughing at things. Some of the funniest moments was the screaming when someone spotted a spider in their room, which was way louder than anything we managed on the pitch!
It was something of a ’break-out’ tournament for you scoring a hat-trick in the opening game and getting a vital header in the final to settle the deal. Having a ‘striker’ daughter myself I know there’s a lot of pressure involved in those high-level games when you’re expected to finish every opportunity you get even though you are facing quality goalkeepers. What were your own expectations going into the tournament and what did you make of your performance?
As a striker, scoring goals is a big expectation which was another factor that contributed to my nervousness going into the first game. But over tournaments and important games I have learned how to deal with the pressure and be confident I can contribute when I'm playing alongside talented players.
Aside from some great goals scored and the qualification for Morocco next year, what was another special memory you’ll treasure from your trip with the team to Samoa?
I will definitely treasure all the memories I made with my teammates, the karaoke nights, fashion shows, and all the other fun activities we did. Samoa was also an amazing country and I was lucky to be able to experience all the culture there. Everyone I met was really kind, especially the hotel staff who supported us and even came and watched our games. But something that tops it all off is the feeling of winning and the celebrations after - that is a feeling I will never forget.
Your touch and ball control were evident during the tournament and I’ve seen you shine at the Secondary School Futsal Champs. Stars such as Ronaldo, Chris Wood and of course our own Macey Fraser all excelled at futsal – has playing futsal helped develop your football skills and will you continue to play both?
Futsal is something I have played almost as long as I have played football even though it is usually just for fun. It really helps me with my control, quick decision making, and passing accuracy. I will hopefully, if I have enough time, continue to play both as I really enjoy futsal and missed it a lot in Samoa.
Having qualified for the 2026 U17 FIFA World cup and with a trip to Morocco to look forward to I’m sure getting up for early morning training over the next 12 months won’t be any problem, but more immediately what are you looking forward to on the football front?
There's a few things I'm looking forward to, top of the list is hopefully being included in the women’s development program at Auckland FC, this provides a great opportunity to experience football in a professional-like club environment. Another goal is to continue to work on my game and with the valuable feedback I received following the OFC qualifiers I have lot’s to aim for. The U17 world cup squad is still not finalised so I know I have to work hard to achieve that.
Musical Jam...
